Homing guidance

Proportional navigation
Main article: Proportional navigation
Proportional navigation (also known as "PN" or "Pro-Nav") is a guidance principle
(analogous to proportional control) used in some form or another by most homing air
target missiles.[5] It is based on the fact that two objects are on a collision
course when the direction of their direct line-of-sight does not change. PN
dictates that the missile velocity vector should rotate at a rate proportional to
the rotation rate of the line of sight (line-Of-sight rate or LOS-rate) and in the
same direction.

Radar homing
Active homing
Main article: active radar homing
Active homing uses a radar system on the missile to provide a guidance signal.
Typically, electronics in the missile keep the radar pointed directly at the
target, and the missile then looks at this "angle" of its own centerline to guide
itself. Radar resolution is based on the size of the antenna, so in a smaller
missile these systems are useful for attacking only large targets, ships or large
bombers for instance. Active radar systems remain in widespread use in anti-
shipping missiles, and in "fire-and-forget" air-to-air missile systems such as the
AIM-120 AMRAAM and R-77.

Semi-active homing
Main article: Semi-active radar homing
Semi-active homing systems combine a passive radar receiver on the missile with a
separate targeting radar that "illuminates" the target. Since the missile is
typically being launched after the target was detected using a powerful radar
system, it makes sense to use that same radar system to track the target, thereby
avoiding problems with resolution or power, and reducing the weight of the missile.
Semi-active radar homing (SARH) is by far the most common "all weather" guidance
solution for anti-aircraft systems, both ground- and air-launched.[6]

It has the disadvantage for air-launched systems that the launch aircraft must keep
moving towards the target in order to maintain radar and guidance lock. This has
the potential to bring the aircraft within range of shorter-ranged IR-guided
(infrared-guided) missile systems. It is an important consideration now that "all
aspect" IR missiles are capable of "kills" from head on, something which did not
prevail in the early days of guided missiles. For ships and mobile or fixed ground-
based systems, this is irrelevant as the speed (and often size) of the launch
platform precludes "running away" from the target or opening the range so as to
make the enemy attack fail.

SALH is similar to SARH but uses a laser as a signal. Another difference is that
most laser-guided weapons employ turret-mounted laser designators which increase
the launching aircraft's ability to maneuver after launch. How much maneuvering can
be done by the guiding aircraft depends on the turret field of view and the
system's ability to maintain a lock-on while maneuvering. As most air-launched,
laser-guided munitions are employed against surface targets the designator
providing the guidance to the missile need not be the launching aircraft;
designation can be provided by another aircraft or by a completely separate source
(frequently troops on the ground equipped with the appropriate laser designator).

Passive homing
See also: passive radar and anti-radiation missile
Infrared homing is a passive system that homes in on the heat generated by the
target. Typically used in the anti-aircraft role to track the heat of jet engines,
it has also been used in the anti-vehicle role with some success. This means of
guidance is sometimes also referred to as "heat seeking".[6]
Contrast seekers use a video camera, typically black and white, to image a field of
view in front of the missile, which is presented to the operator. When launched,
the electronics in the missile look for the spot on the image where the contrast
changes the fastest, both vertically and horizontally, and then attempts to keep
that spot at a constant location in its view. Contrast seekers have been used for
air-to-ground missiles, including the AGM-65 Maverick, because most ground targets
can be distinguished only by visual means. However they rely on there being strong
contrast changes to track, and even traditional camouflage can render them unable
to "lock on".

Retransmission homing
Main article: Track-via-missile
Retransmission homing, also called "track-via-missile" or "TVM", is a hybrid
between command guidance, semi-active radar homing and active radar homing. The
missile picks up radiation broadcast by the tracking radar which bounces off the
target and relays it to the tracking station, which relays commands back to the
missile.

AI guidance
Main article: Artificial intelligence arms race
In 2017, Russian weapons manufacturer Tactical Missiles Corporation announced that
it was developing missiles that would use artificial intelligence to choose their
own targets.[7] In 2019, the United States Army announced it was developing a
similar technology.[8]

GOLIS systems

Israel's Arrow 3 missiles use a gimbaled seeker for hemispheric coverage. By

measuring the seeker's line-of-sight propagation relative to the vehicle's motion,
they use proportional navigation to divert their course and line up exactly with
the target's flight path.[9]
Whatever the mechanism used in a go-onto-location-in-space guidance system is, it
must contain preset information about the target. These systems' main
characteristic is the lack of a target tracker. The guidance computer and the
missile tracker are located in the missile. The lack of target tracking in GOLIS
necessarily implies navigational guidance.[6]

Navigational guidance is any type of guidance executed by a system without a target

tracker. The other two units are on board the missile. These systems are also known
as self-contained guidance systems; however, they are not always entirely
autonomous due to the missile trackers used. They are subdivided by their missile
tracker's function as follows:

Entirely autonomous – Systems where the missile tracker does not depend on any
external navigation source, and can be divided into:
Inertial guidance
With a gimballed gyrostabilized platform or fluid-suspended gyrostabilized platform
With strapdown inertial guidance
Preset guidance
Dependent on natural sources – Navigational guidance systems where the missile
tracker depends on a natural external source:
Celestial guidance
Astro-inertial guidance
Terrestrial guidance
Topographic reconnaissance (Ex: TERCOM)
Photographic reconnaissance (Ex: DSMAC)
Magnetic guidance
Dependent on artificial sources – Navigational guidance systems where the missile
tracker depends on an artificial external source:
Satellite navigation
Global positioning system (GPS)
Global navigation satellite system (GLONASS)
Hyperbolic navigation
DECCA
LORAN C
Preset guidance
Preset guidance is the simplest type of missile guidance. From the distance and
direction of the target, the trajectory of the flight path is determined. Before
firing, this information is programmed into the missile's guidance system, which,
during flight, maneuvers the missile to follow that path. All of the guidance
components (including sensors such as accelerometers or gyroscopes) are contained
within the missile, and no outside information (such as radio instructions) is
used. An example of a missile using preset guidance is the V-2 rocket.[10]

Inertial guidance
Main article: Inertial guidance

Inspection of MM III missile guidance system

Inertial guidance uses sensitive measurement devices to calculate the location of
the missile due to the acceleration put on it after leaving a known position. Early
mechanical systems were not very accurate, and required some sort of external
adjustment to allow them to hit targets even the size of a city. Modern systems use
solid state ring laser gyros that are accurate to within metres over ranges of
10,000 km, and no longer require additional inputs. Gyroscope development has
culminated in the AIRS found on the MX missile, allowing for an accuracy of less
than 100 m at intercontinental ranges. Many civilian aircraft use inertial guidance
using a ring laser gyroscope, which is less accurate than the mechanical systems
found in ICBMs, but which provide an inexpensive means of attaining a fairly
accurate fix on location (when most airliners such as Boeing's 707 and 747 were
designed, GPS was not the widely commercially available means of tracking that it
is today). Today guided weapons can use a combination of INS, GPS and radar terrain
mapping to achieve extremely high levels of accuracy such as that found in modern
cruise missiles.[3]

Inertial guidance is most favored for the initial guidance and reentry vehicles of
strategic missiles, because it has no external signal and cannot be jammed.[2]
Additionally, the relatively low precision of this guidance method is less of an
issue for large nuclear warheads.

Astro-inertial guidance
See also: Inertial navigation system and Celestial navigation
Astro-inertial guidance is a sensor fusion-information fusion of inertial guidance
and celestial navigation. It is usually employed on submarine-launched ballistic
missiles. Unlike silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, whose launch point
does not move and thus can serve as a reference, SLBMs are launched from moving
submarines, which complicates the necessary navigational calculations and increases
circular error probable. This stellar-inertial guidance is used to correct small
position and velocity errors that result from launch condition uncertainties due to
errors in the submarine navigation system and errors that may have accumulated in
the guidance system during the flight due to imperfect instrument calibration.

The USAF sought a precision navigation system for maintaining route accuracy and
target tracking at very high speeds.[citation needed] Nortronics, Northrop's
electronics development division, had developed an astro-inertial navigation system
(ANS), which could correct inertial navigation errors with celestial observations,
for the SM-62 Snark missile, and a separate system for the ill-fated AGM-48 Skybolt
missile, the latter of which was adapted for the SR-71.[11][verification needed]
It uses star positioning to fine-tune the accuracy of the inertial guidance system
after launch. As the accuracy of a missile is dependent upon the guidance system
knowing the exact position of the missile at any given moment during its flight,
the fact that stars are a fixed reference point from which to calculate that
position makes this a potentially very effective means of improving accuracy.

In the Trident missile system this was achieved by a single camera that was trained
to spot just one star in its expected position (it is believed[who?] that the
missiles from Soviet submarines would track two separate stars to achieve this), if
it was not quite aligned to where it should be then this would indicate that the
inertial system was not precisely on target and a correction would be made.[12]

Terrestrial guidance
Main articles: TERCOM and TERCOM § DSMAC
TERCOM, for "terrain contour matching", uses altitude maps of the strip of land
from the launch site to the target, and compares them with information from a radar
altimeter on board. More sophisticated TERCOM systems allow the missile to fly a
complex route over a full 3D map, instead of flying directly to the target. TERCOM
is the typical system for cruise missile guidance, but is being supplanted by GPS
systems and by DSMAC, digital scene-matching area correlator, which employs a
camera to view an area of land, digitizes the view, and compares it to stored
scenes in an onboard computer to guide the missile to its target.

DSMAC is reputed to be so lacking in robustness that destruction of prominent

buildings marked in the system's internal map (such as by a preceding cruise
missile) upsets its navigation.[3]

See also
Artillery fuze
Countermeasure
Electronic warfare
List of missiles
Magnetic proximity fuze
Precision bombing
Precision-guided munition
Proximity fuze
Proximity sensor
Terminal guidance
References
Constant, James N. (27 September 1981). Fundamentals of Strategic Weapons: Offense
and Defense Systems. ISBN 9024725453.
Siouris, George. Missile Guidance and Control Systems. 2004
Zarchan, P. (2012). Tactical and Strategic Missile Guidance (6th ed.). Reston, VA:
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. ISBN 978-1-60086-894-8.
[1] Archived January 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
Yanushevsky, page 3.
"Chapter 15. Guidance and Control". Federation of American Scientists.
Galeon, Dom (2017-07-26). "Russia is building an AI-powered missile that can think
for itself". Business Insider. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
Hambling, David (2019-08-14). "The US Army is developing AI missiles that find
their own targets". New Scientist. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
Eshel, David (2010-02-12). "Israel upgrades its antimissile plans". Aviation Week
& Space Technology. Retrieved 2010-02-13.
Chapter 15 Guidance and Control
Morrison, Bill, SR-71 contributors, Feedback column, Aviation Week and Space
Technology, 9 December 2013, p.10
"Trident II D-5 Fleet Ballistic Missile". Retrieved June 23, 2014.
External links
 Media related to Missile guidance at Wikimedia Commons
vte
Types of missile
By platform
Air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM)Air-launched cruise missile (ALCM)Air-to-air
missile (AAM)Air-to-surface missile (ASM)Ballistic missileCruise
missileIntercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)Intermediate-range ballistic
missile (IRBM)Short-range ballistic missile (SRBM)Shoulder-fired missileStandoff
missileSubmarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM)Submarine-launched cruise missile
(SLCM)Surface-to-air missile (SAM)Surface-to-surface missile (SSM)
By target type
Anti-ballistic missile (ABM)Anti-radiation missile (ARM)Anti-satellite weapon
(ASAT)Anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM)Anti-ship missile (AShM)Anti-submarine
missile (ASuM)Anti-tank missile (ATGM)Land-attack missile (LAM)Man-portable air-
defense system (MANPADS)
By guidance
UnguidedRadar guidance Radar altimeterActive radar homing (ARH)Semi-active radar
homing (SARH)Passive radarPassive homingTrack-via-missile (TVM)Anti-
radiationCommand guidanceCommand to line-of-sight (CLOS)Command off line of sight
(COLOS)Manual command to line of sight (MCLOS)Semi-automatic command to line of
sight (SACLOS)Automatic command to line of sight (ACLOS)Pursuit guidanceBeam riding
(LOSBR)Infrared guidanceLaser guidanceWire guidanceSatellite guidance Global
Positioning System (GPS)GLONASSInertial guidanceAstro-inertial guidanceTerrestrial
guidance TERCOMDSMACAutomatic target recognition (ATR)Radio guidanceTV
guidanceContrast seekerCompassPredicted line of sight (PLOS)
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